Do Trees Pollute?

Plants produce VOCs as part of normal respiration. These, along with anthropogenic VOCs can produce ozone smog in the lower atmosphere.

In the South, pine plantations used for their fast-growing supplies of timber have proven to be havens for sweetgum trees, which are major producers of VOCs. Indeed, virtually every tree that grows fast -- a desirable quality for forestry production -- is a heavy emitter of VOCs.

"It's just one of those biological correlations," said Purves. "What you want is a fast-growing tree that doesn't produce a lot of VOCs, but that doesn't seem to exist."

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/04/q3/0927-trees.htm

The debate continues: "... trees were reported to contribute to ozone formation. This misleading fact contains only part of the truth. Most trees do emit biogenic VOCs such as isoprene and monoterpenes which can contribute to the formation of ozone and carbon monoxide. The other side of this story is that in areas with low nitrogen oxide concentrations, such as more rural areas, VOCs are believed to remove ozone. Additionally, since trees lower air temperature, the net effect of increased trees in urban areas is an overall lowering of VOC emissions and therefore ozone formation.

Trees in urban areas require energy inputs for planting, maintaining and removing. Because we burn fossil fuels (which emit CO2, SO2, N, CO and VOCs) in all these activities, we also need to factor that into the Trees + Air equation. In this case, it tips the scale a bit to the net loss side… but not for long!"

http://ecology.com/features/trees-air-quality/trees-clean-air.html